…and Why It Matters
Organizations are more than the sum of their individual parts.
We understand that. That’s why Emtrain’s Solution empowers its users to measure and compare social capital metrics. Social capital is a new way to evaluate organizational health which accounts for the entirety of a community, measuring the quality of connections and interactions within a company. While traditional human capital measurements encompass a workforce’s accumulated skills and experiences, social capital gauges the level of respect, inclusion, and ethical conduct in its culture.
Social Capital Benchmarks
The Emtrain solution displays social capital scores on your Workplace Culture Scorecard. The Scorecard allows you to segment and compare scores against the global database and various benchmarks. You can compare the culture of a department to the organization’s baseline or see how your score stacks up against the industry average. Benchmarks help to simplify the complexity that comes with assessing abstract concepts like respect and wellbeing. The best way to get a sense of a workplace’s health is to compare it to other workplaces and industries.
This brings us to one of our most frequently asked questions: Why does Emtrain set a cross-industry benchmark for social capital and well being?
After all, industries can have radically different norms for how people interact with each other. How does it make sense to judge every industry by the same standards?
Standards of Conduct Apply to Everyone
There are several reasons behind this decision. Firstly, we believe that the standards governing respect and decency are universal. Though the context of the work might differ from a tech company to a hospital, the basic principles of human interaction are the same. Active communication and respectful conduct will always elevate a team’s effectiveness. Bullying, harassment, and exclusion will always damage a workplace’s culture.
This comes down to the way that humans process stress and collaboration. As Emtrain’s Senior Director of Organization Psychology Dr. Leann Pereira explained in an Emtrain webinar, “When you look at how stress is perceived, it really doesn’t matter what the stimulus is – you get a neuro-chemical reaction. And so it doesn’t matter if you have a high level of stress because a CEO is screaming in your face at a tech company […] or because you’re dealing with a life threatening situation in the ER. The stress shows up in the body the same “.
Everyone Deserves Respect
We believe that every person is entitled to the same level of respect in the workplace – regardless of what industry they work in. For sure, this is a lofty goal, and currently many industries differ greatly in their social capital scores. For example, the healthcare field – with its high-intensity, high-stress work – consistently scores lower on measures of respect and inclusion than other industries.
But just because this is the way things are, doesn’t mean this is the way things should be. A person shouldn’t automatically have to accept a toxic workplace environment just because they’re in healthcare, for example. Even in high-intensity work environments, you can still be direct without being rude; you can still be decisive while still accounting for others’ perspectives.
The Power of Social Capital Benchmarks
Setting a social capital benchmark across industries allows CHROs, DEI Leaders and even CFOs to contextualize their workplace culture amongst the worldwide ecosystem of businesses. It acts as an important baseline for determining what a company’s strengths are as well as its areas of improvement. Using benchmarks and cutting edge analytics software, Emtrain can pinpoint weaknesses and work to address them. Armed with this knowledge, Emtrain can help clients create a work environment which values its employees, protects against harassment, and attracts top talent to the company.
For more information on how Emtrain can help your business, request a free customized demo or speak with one of our experts to learn more!
To watch the full webinar on Why We Benchmark Across Industries, check out the recording and slides here
